Terahertz

From the United Nations 60-year old Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

From Dave Hancock, Alberta’s Minister of Education (who is doing an amazing job of responding personally to everyone who comments on his Blog, I wish more politicians were as open):

It has been defended on the basis that these parental rights are a very simple expression of the rights of parents expressed in the UN Declaration on the subject and therefore a fittting inclusion in the HRA. [emphasis added]

Okay, so you’re trying to get #3 there, but what about bullets #1 and #2?

University surely isn’t equally accessible, solely on the basis of merit in Alberta (or much of Canada) with average tuition in the province approaching $5000 per year, with Klein and Stelmach rallying through the 90s which saw a 275% increase from 91-06 (and nearly quadruple increase for international students). Provinces like Quebec, Newfoundland and Manitoba, meanwhile, all boast tuitions of under $3500.

It’s up to interpretation if elementary education is “free” in Alberta. Many districts charge school fees to do anything beyond the bare-bones curriculum, but it’s rare that you can “opt-out” of these fees. Further, many districts have a transportation or busing fee to get rural children to and from school. But everyone does have “a right to education,” so perhaps we could be doing a little bit better here as a province.

Now, Bill 44′s opt-out provisions, which vaguely fall under the third bullet (but I’ll elaborate on that shortly), might seem to contradict that second point. If children are being “opted out” of education about other cultures, beliefs, sexual orientations, then in what way does that “promote understanding, tolerance and friendship?” One might argue that Bill 44 actually accosts the Declaration rather than submits to it.

Finally, does giving parents the right to opt their children out of “subject-matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or
sexual orientation” fall in line with the right for parents “to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children?”

The way I read the Declaration isn’t that parents have the right to keep their children ignorant, but that they can choose what manner their children learn about topics. The topics will remain their to be learnt whether the parent likes it or not. Just because you don’t want your children to learn that Canada was founded by Christians or that now same-sex couples can marry one another, doesn’t mean your child doesn’t have a right to learn such things.

Perhaps an update to Bill 44 (or preferably the School Act since Bill 44 also introduces the infamous Human Rights Tribunals) would require from parents notification of how and where children who are opted out will be alternatively educated, thereby protecting the rights of the child to be educated.

But Bill 44 was never designed to protect children from ignorance.